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Thursday, October 22, 2015

When I was heavily pregnant with Aisha, I bought a new breast pump. I have mentioned previously that I was not happy with my Spectra 3. Reasons were:

1. Big and heavy, not portable for me as I always have meetings and conferences outside my uni.
2. Need power supply.
3. Not hands free
4. Most importantly, the suction is not able to clear off my milk. At the end, when I marmet, I still manage to get around 4oz.

I am so so happy with my Medela Freestyle despite the cost; seriously I could fly to Europe with that money ;p. It manages to solve all of the above problems except number 3. I don't know how to make it hands free. So technology savvy, right? Sigh... But, I managed to solve the problem using hands free bustierre I bought from My Little Iman Store.

The best investment after my Freestyle

I love everything about my Medela Freestyle. It first stimulates the milk production and then after 2 minutes it changes to normal suction. It doesn't hurt. I have one whole freezer of milk stocks for Aisha which I cashed in during Ramadhan, bit by bit.

But after Aisha turned 1, I started to realize that my milk decreased at every pumping session. Until at a point where I needed to use my stocks even after Ramadhan. At one point, I was running out of stock and pumped to get only 2oz per session. Then, I realized that I still feel heavy. I tried to marmet and true enough, within 20 mins, I managed to get 4oz of milk.

Then, I realized, my pump sounded funny. No more warranty after a year. Bertahanlah I marmet for a week.

Was googling like crazy to find a Medela service centre, I don't really fancy their after sale services. Found one next to De Palma, Ampang. But only open during working hour. Both Love and I took a day off and sent my poor Freestyle. Before explaining what was wrong with my pump, the salesperson said, "Just looking at your pump, I think you have an accessory problem".

I kind of doubt her considering my pump had lots of funny noises. So, she calibrated my pump. Motor is perfectly fine, just a bit noisy and true enough! My accessory!!! There was only 10% suction happening ok. *Salute salesperson Medela*

I could buy a new cheaper pump for a pair of these!

After RM280 damages done, my milk production is normal again, stocking up for the baby again. 10 more months to go, may Allah swt ease up everything for me. Ameen.

And that's when the interrogations happen. I guess there's no magic in my answer, hence the probing.

Then, I read Outliers and somehow I can relate to it very very strongly.

It has been a while since I last read Gladwell's intelligence. For me personally, among the four books I read: Blink, The Tipping Point and What the Dog Saw (click each book for my review), Outliers is the masterpiece!

In Outliers, the best and the most successful people are picked and studied to see what made them.. simply the outliers.. the outstanding ones.

Great soccer players mostly are born in January, because the intake for good soccer club is in December. Hence, those born in January have more time to practice compared to those, say in November.

Bill Gates is worth million dollars now because he used to have 24 hours access to computers, when computers back then were so expensive and only few people have the opportunity of using them.

Most lawyers are Jewish because their immigrant parents worked in garments industry. How does it relate? Go read Outliers, please! And why us, Asians are good with maths?

You see, of course it takes hard work and determination to achieve something. But we have too often focus on what successful people are like and too little attention to where they are coming from. Because, it matters.

Honestly, I have learned a lot from this book. In a sense of parenting as well.

I learned that it matters to send your children to good schools, because good schools produce good education system and good environment and support system.

It matters to train them in whatever skills we want them to excel daily although as short as 5 minutes a day.

It matters for them to have a good support system in order to make them the outliers.

Friday, October 9, 2015

Alhamdulillah.. Finally Khaira has recovered from that persistent coughing.

It started somewhere in March, that longgg dry cough for a month plus. We went to 2 different paedetricians; singulairs, zyrtec and ventolin were prescribed as according to them.. it was an asthmatic cough. None of my family and in law's have asthma so it was a bit odd to us. According to the doctor, Khaira was allergy to dust and the carpet in kindy might be the cause. She recovered after antibiotics.

About two weeks after, the coughing began again. I couldn't afford to see so many drugs in my baby's body, so I went to homeopathy. According to the doctor, both lymph nodes were swollen, hence the cough kept coming back. Crazy I tell you the healing process of the homeopathy. But Khaira recovered well.

After a month, the cough striked back. This time, the old prescription of homeopathy did not work and one of her lymph node still swollen so doctor gave her a new prescription and she was well again for three weeks before that dry annoying cough began again. I felt soooo down everytime she coughed. No ice cream, house is always clean, no junk foods, lots of fruits and juices, omg the extend I've been through..

When it started again, I decided to get another opinion. I read online about Dr. Nadir Khan, so I went to his clinic and I received a new insight. He said zyrtec and ventolin or any other cough medicines are not recommended for Khaira as it helps the phlegm to accumulate and beku. So he gave us ubat kahak, to let the phlegm loose and Khaira had her first neb.

He advised us to steam 3 to 4 times a day until she's okay. Followed by percussion. He said it was not asthma but rather one of her saluran pernafasan was infected and did not cure from the first infection, hence it recurs.

And.. we did not look back ever since. Alhamdulillah. Khaira has been in an excellent health for over 2 months now.

Let me share what I did to her until she became Alhamdulillah healthy now, perhaps it can be of a help:

1. Doa from Surah Yunus, Ayat 57; from Ustaz Syarhan. Apart from that continuos doa, also to a friend who went for hajj.

2. Steam everyday: 3 to 4 times a day. Just take a rice cooker, fill in with water, wait until it is hot, sit on a chair with ur kid on ur lap, face facing the steam from ricecooker while doing percussion on her back for 10 minutes each session at least. I put garlic, habbatus sauda, salt and acv in the boiled water as these ingredients are known as a good antiviral. Of course, nobody asked me to put it.. just trial and error.. but it works.

2. After 10 minutes of steaming while doing percussion at the back, lie your kid flat and do percussion in front. FYI, tepuk percussion itu sungguh kuat ya but not supposed to hurt. Focus on the areas where when you do percussion, your kid coughs or said it feels itchy. Supposed they vomit after percussion, but mine did not, no worries it will go out with the stools.

3. Minyak bawang putih/garlic oil? Just roast a clove of garlic, mesh and mix with olive oil. Spread at her chest, back, behind ears and sole of feet.

4. But at times it worsen, I did the extreme. Took a large onion.. slice it, take one slice and place at the sole of her feet. Covered them with socks that I wet with acv. Overnight strong antiviral. Hehe.

5. Supplements. Fish oil and vitamin C really helps. I took Nature's Way fish oil and Champs 100mg Vitamic C. In conclusion, this is K's supplements everyday (when Ibu remembers, tee hee):
- In that spoon is a mix of raw honey+pomegranate exract+fish oil+vco
- 1 tablet of Vit C
- The makanan sunnah I prepared for her; shall blog about it soon.

6. Fruits and veges everyday althought sometimes at a small quantity

7. Goat's milk every now and then. I used Purenat goat's milk when I can't get my hands of the fresh ones.

About Me

A servant tries to please her Creator. A mother who believes in gentle birthing and islamic parenting. A wife to her high school sweetheart. A daughter, hoping to be better each passing day. A lecturer in which geeky stuff excites her. A travel junkie and a book worm whom life is never better after graduating her PhD :)